Checklists for diagnosing and providing solutions for a lack of focus
1) Checklist for identifying whether you are not focusing as much as you could be
This is a checklist that you can go through if you are studying a subject and think that you may be having trouble focusing. These are some general things that you can check to find out whether focus is indeed the problem.
1. Are you missing steps in the material? For example, have you read to the bottom of a page without remembering what you have read?
2. Are you unable to remember anything if you test yourself on the material that you have been studying?
3. Are you “zoning out?”
4. Do you feel like you are in any recognizable altered states associated with lack of focus? Such as feeling frazzled?
If you seem to have any of these problems, proceed to the next checklist to find out more specifically what the problem is.
1) Potential problems affecting your focus checklist
The idea with this checklist is that you can navigate through the tree structure and pinpoint potential solutions to your specific problems. The checklist is in somewhat of a natural order, but feel free to skip to the branches that seem most specific to your task if you are familiar with the list. Some of the recommended solutions may take longer than others to implement; skip the longer ones if you are constrained for time. Also skip options that are not feasible for you to implement right now.
1. Are you feeling generally mentally alert and capable?
a. Did you have enough sleep last night? If not, try taking a nap.
b. Is it late at night or generally a bad time of day for heavy focus from you? Consider coming back to this subject at a better time.
c. Have you taken a break recently? If not, take one.
d. In general, fix the problem if you can. If you cannot, consider taking a break and coming back to it if it seems like that would help. Also consider trying to study a different subject if there is a lighter or more engaging subject that you could be studying.
2. Are you constantly thinking of something else?
a. Consider setting a pomodoro and agree to yourself that you will save your thoughts about this until the break, when you can think about it as much as you like.
b. Consider practising mindfulness to let go of the thoughts and clear you mind. Search on youtube for a good guided mediation.
c. Consider writing down the errant thoughts down. Agree to come back to those thoughts after you are finished studying if you still want to after that.
3. Are the things around you distracting you?
a. Turn off notifications on any devices around you so that they will not disturb you from your task at all.
b. If other people’s noise is the problem consider using, ear plugs, ear muffs, white noise or music of your own if you are able to study with it. Noise bothers some people more than others.
c. If consider moving to another location. Sometimes there is some problematic feature or associations with particular study locations. If you were studying at home, consider moving to a public space such as a library.
4. Are you studying too passively?
a. Consider switching to testing yourself on the subject.
b. Consider switching from reading or watching the material to solving problems or writing about the subject (even just by taking more notes).
c. Consider vocalising or subvocalizing the text or the steps to yourself.
d. Consider looking back in the text or video to parts that you might not understand, and that seem important for understanding the subject as a whole. Deliberately practise those or deliberately try to understand those.
5. Does it seem like the subject is just generally not interesting enough to you?
a. Consider taking time to relate the subject to your goals and interests. For example, if math does not seem relevant enough to you, consider how it is useful in many different careers and how it comes up in many different subjects. Consider how this may be true of your career or other subjects you are interested in.
b. Consider reading or watching something short by someone who is enthusiastic about the subject and inherit the enthusiasm and consider how they may make good points.
c. Think about someone you know and like who is interested in the subject and consider how they might be impressed if you became better at the subject and how you could have conversations with them about it.
6. Does it seem the subject matter is just generally too hard for you to understand?
a. Consider skimming through the material to try and get the general ideas behind the subject before proceeding.
b. Consider studying each step more closely and giving yourself more time to understand the ideas.
c. Try explaining the subject matter to yourself in as simple terms as possible. This is especially important if the subject just seems to be poorly presented rather than inherently complex. You could consider writing out a summary in your own terms so that you will have a much easier time refreshing your mind about this when you study it again.
d. Consider asking someone for help on the subject.
e. Consider finding other material that explains the subject matter in different way – or just in a better way – than the media you are dealing with.
7. Does is seem like you are averse to the subject matter in some way or does it otherwise seem like you may be procrastinating?
a. Consider agreeing to do a small amount of work on the subject in exchange (a 25 minute or shorter pomodoro) on the subject.
b. Consider aversion factoring: http://acritch.com/aversions/
c. Consider making the task more pleasant in some way such as working with a friend.
d. Consider writing down, or talking to someone about, why you are procrastinating to try to reduce the aversion.
e. Consider a reward that you could give to yourself for starting work on the task.
8. Does a lack of focus just not seem like a large enough issue to you right now?
a. Consider how valuable focusing is. Consider occasions where you were very focused and that you are easily able to remember the facts from. Some examples of this are when you in an important conversation with someone and you can easily remember the facts even thought it was a difficult subject because the subject seems very interesting or important to you.
b. Consider how much more you could make of your study time if you were more focused like that right now. Do a cost benefit analysis on how much you should be focusing.
1) Checklist for identifying whether you are not focusing as much as you could be
This is a checklist that you can go through if you are studying a subject and think that you may be having trouble focusing. These are some general things that you can check to find out whether focus is indeed the problem.
1. Are you missing steps in the material? For example, have you read to the bottom of a page without remembering what you have read?
2. Are you unable to remember anything if you test yourself on the material that you have been studying?
3. Are you “zoning out?”
4. Do you feel like you are in any recognizable altered states associated with lack of focus? Such as feeling frazzled?
If you seem to have any of these problems, proceed to the next checklist to find out more specifically what the problem is.
1) Potential problems affecting your focus checklist
The idea with this checklist is that you can navigate through the tree structure and pinpoint potential solutions to your specific problems. The checklist is in somewhat of a natural order, but feel free to skip to the branches that seem most specific to your task if you are familiar with the list. Some of the recommended solutions may take longer than others to implement; skip the longer ones if you are constrained for time. Also skip options that are not feasible for you to implement right now.
1. Are you feeling generally mentally alert and capable?
a. Did you have enough sleep last night? If not, try taking a nap.
b. Is it late at night or generally a bad time of day for heavy focus from you? Consider coming back to this subject at a better time.
c. Have you taken a break recently? If not, take one.
d. In general, fix the problem if you can. If you cannot, consider taking a break and coming back to it if it seems like that would help. Also consider trying to study a different subject if there is a lighter or more engaging subject that you could be studying.
2. Are you constantly thinking of something else?
a. Consider setting a pomodoro and agree to yourself that you will save your thoughts about this until the break, when you can think about it as much as you like.
b. Consider practising mindfulness to let go of the thoughts and clear you mind. Search on youtube for a good guided mediation.
c. Consider writing down the errant thoughts down. Agree to come back to those thoughts after you are finished studying if you still want to after that.
3. Are the things around you distracting you?
a. Turn off notifications on any devices around you so that they will not disturb you from your task at all.
b. If other people’s noise is the problem consider using, ear plugs, ear muffs, white noise or music of your own if you are able to study with it. Noise bothers some people more than others.
c. If consider moving to another location. Sometimes there is some problematic feature or associations with particular study locations. If you were studying at home, consider moving to a public space such as a library.
4. Are you studying too passively?
a. Consider switching to testing yourself on the subject.
b. Consider switching from reading or watching the material to solving problems or writing about the subject (even just by taking more notes).
c. Consider vocalising or subvocalizing the text or the steps to yourself.
d. Consider looking back in the text or video to parts that you might not understand, and that seem important for understanding the subject as a whole. Deliberately practise those or deliberately try to understand those.
5. Does it seem like the subject is just generally not interesting enough to you?
a. Consider taking time to relate the subject to your goals and interests. For example, if math does not seem relevant enough to you, consider how it is useful in many different careers and how it comes up in many different subjects. Consider how this may be true of your career or other subjects you are interested in.
b. Consider reading or watching something short by someone who is enthusiastic about the subject and inherit the enthusiasm and consider how they may make good points.
c. Think about someone you know and like who is interested in the subject and consider how they might be impressed if you became better at the subject and how you could have conversations with them about it.
6. Does it seem the subject matter is just generally too hard for you to understand?
a. Consider skimming through the material to try and get the general ideas behind the subject before proceeding.
b. Consider studying each step more closely and giving yourself more time to understand the ideas.
c. Try explaining the subject matter to yourself in as simple terms as possible. This is especially important if the subject just seems to be poorly presented rather than inherently complex. You could consider writing out a summary in your own terms so that you will have a much easier time refreshing your mind about this when you study it again.
d. Consider asking someone for help on the subject.
e. Consider finding other material that explains the subject matter in different way – or just in a better way – than the media you are dealing with.
7. Does is seem like you are averse to the subject matter in some way or does it otherwise seem like you may be procrastinating?
a. Consider agreeing to do a small amount of work on the subject in exchange (a 25 minute or shorter pomodoro) on the subject.
b. Consider aversion factoring: http://acritch.com/aversions/
c. Consider making the task more pleasant in some way such as working with a friend.
d. Consider writing down, or talking to someone about, why you are procrastinating to try to reduce the aversion.
e. Consider a reward that you could give to yourself for starting work on the task.
8. Does a lack of focus just not seem like a large enough issue to you right now?
a. Consider how valuable focusing is. Consider occasions where you were very focused and that you are easily able to remember the facts from. Some examples of this are when you in an important conversation with someone and you can easily remember the facts even thought it was a difficult subject because the subject seems very interesting or important to you.
b. Consider how much more you could make of your study time if you were more focused like that right now. Do a cost benefit analysis on how much you should be focusing.
